SOCIAL

Out and proud MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts is planning his wedding

In September, Thomas Roberts will become the first openly gay cable news anchor to get married beating the likes of Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow and Don Lemon to the alter.

Roberts, who anchors a morning newscast weekdays on MSNBC, will be marrying longtime partner Patrick Abner of Merck Pharmaceuticals’ HIV/AIDS division in Manhattan.

‘I was on the treadmill for three miles this morning,’ he tells the New York Observer. ‘I will be on it for three miles tomorrow. I had a Red Bull for lunch and I eat gum. I’m the typical groom!’

Roberts, then an anchor at CNN, came out publicly in 2006 during a speech he made at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association convention in Miami, Florida.

That didn’t result in Thomas putting LGBT stories on the front burner, that happened all on its own with such stories as same-sex marriage and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell regularly in the headlines.

‘I think LGBT stories right now are newsmakers,’ Roberts says. ‘So, no matter if you’re straight, gay or Martian, you’re going to be covering them. Because I am who I am, I can provide a different viewpoint, because people at home might know who I am or where I’ve come from—and that’s O.K.’

‘I am not objective when it comes to equality. And that means for all,’ he adds. ‘I want it for you, for me, for everybody … It’s written in our Constitution: life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, and what’s wrong with talking about that? Nothing.’